Wednesday, November 7, 2012

America Commits Suicide


By Alan Caruba
I had hoped that the majority of voters would elect Mitt Romney, but instead of a man of character they chose charisma.
They ignored four years of failure and deception. In advertising, they say “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.” Romney, sadly, lacked sizzle.
Obama’s victory was one of a long line of Progressives from Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Jimmy Carter. It was not new, but it will likely do more damage on top of what his predecessors have done.
It turned out that there were not enough voters from the faith-based communities. You know—the kind of people Obama said “cling to their religion and guns.” There were not enough from a range of population subsets to make a difference.
Like New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg who thought a marathon run through boroughs devastated by Hurricane Sandy was a really good idea, Obama has never had any real sense of how people feel about things that are important to them. Why should he? He was raised in a communist cocoon in which family, friends, fellow students, teachers, and mentors ensured he would never be exposed to the fundamentals of free market capitalism that has been the bedrock of the nation’s prosperity.
I have written repeatedly that he just does not like America and that this explains his view that our nation is not an exceptional place in which to live.
His mother was attracted first an African and, after being divorced, to an Indonesian, both Muslims. And then she abandoned Obama to the care of his leftist grandparents. His academic life led him from Occidental College to Columbia University, and then onto Harvard Law School, all leftist strongholds and, yet oddly few of his fellow students even remembered him.
On the radio of the 1940s there was a show called “The Shadow” about a man with the “power to cloud men’s minds” who used it to fight crime, but Obama developed the power to so utterly charm people that, like any successful confidence man, he left people impressed with all the exterior aspects of him without few clues about what he stood for, what he believed, and what his true goals are.
Despite four years of his campaign and his first term not enough Americans understood that Barack Obama is as alien to America as if he had come from some very different, very foreign place.
What is most baffling is why a majority of voters looked at the estimated 23 million of their fellow citizens who were out of work or had stopped looking for work, and whose lives along with their own were even further encumbered by the massive debt Obama had run up; currently $16 trillion and climbing, and thought that was okay?
In a nation whose citizens pride themselves on their ability to work to meet the needs of their families, it was and is profoundly disturbing that 47 million must use food stamps or that millions have fallen below the poverty level.
Why did the majority of voters not understand the fearful implications of the erosion of the nation’s military power, not knowing that peace can only be maintained by a navy that keeps the sea lanes open, the marines who are skilled at making a quick entry into a battle zone, the army that can subdue an enemy, and an air force that has no comparison? The active military and veterans understood what their Commander-in-Chief was doing to them, but the lies about the Benghazi attack that killed a U.S. ambassador and three others were ignored.
Those who voted for Obama were content to believe the cascade of lies Obama told. They ignored the President’s record of failure—the failed “stimulus” that was nothing more than a political slush fund, Obamacare that was forced on the nation by a straight party vote by Democrats in Congress, the bankruptcy of the “clean energy” companies that could not compete even with public funding, and the eruption of Islamic frenzy that saw him abandon friend and foe alike in the Middle East.
It was Obamacare that gave birth to the Tea Party movement. The President, his advisors, the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate never understood what the Tea Party was about. Why would they? The U.S. Constitution was what they wanted to believe it said, not what it really says.
Now Obama has the opportunity to fill seats on the Supreme Court with more progressive judges, thus affecting not just the next four years, but generations of Americans to come.
The abandonment of Israel troubled many, but just as troubling was the Democratic Party convention in which the inclusion of God and Jerusalem in the party platform evoked jeers and derision. It was the same Democratic Party that had, since the end of the Civil War, fought against the calls for equality from America’s black community. Even so, the African-American community continued to support them.
In 2008 Americans voted for Obama in the belief that they could demonstrate to the world that it was post-racial, post-partisan. Instead they got a cold, indifferent, arrogant man who listened only to a small circle of leftist advisors and shadowy, unknown and unseen “czars” in the White House.
Obama was as disinterested in Main Street as he was antagonistic to Wall Street. His constant talk of “millionaires and billionaires” and the need to redistribute wealth may have worried some people, but not enough of those who believe they too can achieve the American dream of wealth and success based on hard work and a measure of risk.
The majority of voters ignored the realities of the nation’s economy. They failed to realize that Obama’s opposition to the vast wealth of America’s energy reserves of coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear will only delay the nation’s way out of debt and dependency.
In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."
John Adams, Founding Father and the nation’s second President warned "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

Today, conservatives in America are wondering if the 2012 election was a vote to commit national suicide.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

The majority of Americans are morons apparently. They "kept Obama in President, he gave me a phone!"

Harry Dale Huffman said...

Since I was wrong in reading the signs and the reasoned arguments, I can only acknowledge that my reasoned hope for a Romney win was overestimated -- I don't yet know how much so, as I did not follow the returns last night. Obama's re-election only confirms what I well know -- and in many ways, uniquely know -- from many years of research and frustrating experience: Nobody, still, is learning anything to make them question their unquestioned assumptions, and are instead relying on personal opinions that divide them from half of the population, rather than tie them together harmoniously. Divided and ever-divisive dogmas rule the world, and are driving men everywhere toward war rather than cooperation and respect. But those who voted for Obama are incapable of honestly seeing blatant and fundamental lies, or uncaring of the character (and present lack of it) of their "leaders". I think a thousand years (maybe two, or three) of advancement in the character of mankind -- in casting off both unquestioned dogma and the soul-deadening belief in might over right, "an eye for an eye" and the misreading of historic events as "God's (inevitable) will" -- is at risk. The world, not just America, is losing the fight for a meaningful existence, by choosing dogma over truth.

Rozy Lass said...

Your post title echoes the very thought I had this morning. Thank you for sharing your very sobering thoughts and analysis.

What if it's today? - A survivalist's blog said...

Your commentary hits it on the head. I worry about how our country will be finding a new place in this world...not as a leader but as a follower. I worry about Israel, because as Israel goes, so goes the rest of the world. In my circle of family and friends they supported Obama not because they are the ones who receive the handouts but because they believe that those poor unfortunate souls need the handouts in order to survive. Most of my relatives are well off enough that they don't mind handing over greater chunks of their money to the government to make things "fair". I just pointed out how Romney gave to charity and that is much better than giving to government. The end result may be the same but it's not being doled out by the government. Since when don't choices we make in life have a determination in how our life is lived? I just don't get it.

Ronbo said...

Well said, Alan!

Also well said was Ayn Rand in her 1957 opus, "ATLAS SHRUGGED" where she wrote of a world that collapsed into feudalism due to socialism rum amok.

So what happens now?

A Second U.S. Civil War as myself and many fellow bloggers have predicted?

The good news from the election result is that the opposition to Obama Socialism runs well above 100 million people. Clearly, if this massive number of people decide to form rebel armies and attack Washington, D.C. to restore the Republic - they would triumph in short order.

However, a rebel direct assault against the Regime may not happen. Instead, as Ayn Rand predicted, the men and women of enterprise, along with rank and file skilled workers may simply withdraw their labor, pop lots of popcorn, and wash it down with their beer as the nation - and the world - fly apart.

This actually happened before in 1991 when the old Soviet Union went belly up.

Anonymous said...

I agree with your title. The most disturbing thing is over half the voters cannot do math, science nor do they care a bit about those things. It's just gimme, gimme, gimme. I don't foresee a revolution. If we, the people who don't care and have too much money, were that dedicated, Obama would not have won. We are not. There may be strife as resources run out along with jobs. Obama has no idea how to create jobs, just take money from people. That never works long. However, now when charities call me, I am just directing them to the government. If over half the people in this country say to government will save us, who am I to argue. Call Obama if you need money.

Eddy Burke said...

I sure is going to be an interesting four years! Blame the press, the academia, the public schools, the "march through the institutions" of the '60s liberals. Pray and braze yourself!
Eddy

rtx said...

Great post. I have particpated in a few threads out there & have asked Obama suppporters what the plan is to get 23 million people back to work, reduce the 75 million on foodstamps and pay for Obamacare. I have yet to receive an answer. And I will state again, I truly would like to hear a solution, I am not being sarcastic, I truly would like to know what the plan is.

Unknown said...

The election results are so depressing! America voted and America lost!
Obamacare is here to stay and those who voted for "revenge" are going to find that revenge is going to turn on them. Many of them will go from full time to part time employment and they will lose their health insurance. Those without jobs will stay unemployed. You get what you vote for and those who voted for Obama deserve the pain that will result from their votes.
The sad thing is that just about half of the American public do not deserve the coming results of another 4 years with Barack Obama as president. I am depressed and feel like I was just hit by another type of hurricane. There will be no help from FEMA to help us recover from Hurricane Barry.

Anonymous said...

i feel that Obummer got voted back in due mostly to Race, not by the qualification he has. It seems to me it was more about his race then what he has and will do. thats why he got back in. Im sure theres a few people that believes in his policies and thats why they voted for him. Others, i believe it was cause of the color of his skin. Most of Obummer voters cant tell you who the vice president is, and cant tell you much about Obummer policies besides, (so called) free healthcare(in which we know is not free.) . polls showed most of Obummer voters are young or of different races .
im very sad that its like High school , people are voting for the more popular guy and not what he stands for. Sadly this even goes against what Martin Luther King speeches was about "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content"

Tom Hunter said...

My depression has turned to frustration and then to anger. One of my first thoughts was "just wait until everyone gets their first paycheck of the New Year and sees the tax increase they voted for."

But then came the sobering realization that the Republicans in Congress will absolutely fold to the demands of the President and his Democrat colleagues, and will agree before the end of the year to keep the existing tax rates in place for everyone but the so-called "rich," rather than stand on principle and risk the blizzard of negative PR that will be dumped upon them by the demagogues across the aisle.

So it has come to this: the only way to get elected or to get anything done in this country is to lie, defame and disparage your opponent. Issues need not be addressed, and soon will no longer be tolerated.

Unknown said...

Alan ,
My condolences to America on the results of Your elections . The cognitive dissonance of the left leaning media here in Australia over the result is truly astonishing .

We have headlines blazing "Dollar records high surge in confidence as a response to Obama victory" reading further You find that it was in fact the Australian dollar "surging" reading further still the "surge" was only against the American dollar .

Meanwhile tucked away in a corner of the paper is a small article headed "US stocks dive"

I shudder to think how much damage the left needs to do to the economies of Our nations before the masses realise that the final victims of a war on a nations wealth and productivity are those who have very little wealth to start with

Alan Caruba said...

@Byron. Wherever Australia is heading, America is right behind. It's like a sh*t storm of stupidity in both nations.

RStabb said...

I'm worried...Worried about the upcoming war. Israel will bomb Iran and need help from the US. Our commander-in-chief is not up to the task.